A good online presence requires a great offline personality
03 / 03 / 2015

A good online presence requires a great offline personality

Author

Mel Yates

Category

Blogs

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As an integrated agency here at Absolute, we know and value the importance of creating a lasting impression for our clients. In a predominantly digital world, the value of a printed piece of design sometimes gets overlooked, but the value of print can be very rewarding.

On first meeting a person, my first impressions start at the business card/brochure I’m handed, I generally tend to analyse that company or person from that one piece of print and instantly have a preconceived idea of their business.

If design and print have been considered, it stays with me. That card/brochure goes on my desk and gets passed around the office. However, if it’s a forgettable leaflet/flimsy business card, I’ll admit, it tends to get left behind or put in the bin.

The balance between digital and print works both ways. If a brand has a good piece of print, it makes the person receiving it want to find out more about the company. They might then go onto the website, or find them on social media.

The same goes with digital, if someone has a great website it allows you to buy into the brand and what they do, which leads to the urge to find out more, maybe requesting a brochure or a face to face meeting.

The emotional connection between print and the end user is just as relevant today as it always has been. A good piece of print design can really set the tone for a brand.

Everyone has at least once met with someone, finished up the meeting, only to be handed a really shoddy business card (usually a thin stock with no design consideration) and it can leave you feeling really deflated. We recently spoke with a client about what kind of business cards they wanted for their new brand, the MD immediately began to describe a card which he had been handed over 12 months previously from another company, he went into so much detail about this business card and how much he loved the style, which just backs up my point – print makes for much stronger lasting impressions.

Impactful print design for Fresh Britain

(An example of some impactful print design for Fresh Britain, which is matte black foil, gloss blue foil and chisel embossed, this kind of print design can be costly but effective.)

The rational side of print however always comes down to cost or turnover time. Trying to weigh up the benefits of a heavy stock, letterpress or foiling in the initial stages of a new piece of print can be tricky, it can be difficult to see past the big bill at the end. But there are many ways of working around these costs, a good example of producing a quality business card at a lower cost would be to use rubber stamping to print onto a card, this can work nicely for example if you have a brand which has a handmade quality to it. It all goes down to what impression you want to make to new or existing clients.

Generally with a business card, brochure or any other form of print you remember the experience that comes with it, something which you don’t tend to get from the digital world. With a quality piece of print you can really appreciate the work which has gone into it, from the feel, finishing and even the smell. This leaves more of a lasting impression than any webpage ever could.

To enquire about any print you require call us on 01204 478202.